Nintendo officially endorses derivative works, big news for Let’s Plays

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For a long time, Nintendo has taken a hard stance on new forms of media that showcase its games outside of officially promoted materials. Last year a huge uproar was raised when Nintendo began filing copyright claims on all YouTube videos featuring its games, replacing the creator’s ads with their own. Nintendo eventually relented and stopped this practice after tons of people who were affected said they would no longer showcase Nintendo’s games.

Now it looks like Nintendo is changing its tune once again and will allow derivative works for its intellectual property without any repercussions to those who create them. Recently Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata announced that the company is a sponsor for a video event being held in Japan and that Nintendo officially gives permission for anyone to use their properties for derivative works, which includes let’s play videos, fanart, and music covers of popular songs.

This is a great revelation for Nintendo fans, who can continue sharing videos, artwork, and music they’ve created that features any of Nintendo’s intellectual property.